The Voice Recap: Sleepy. Hollow. [Updated]

Usain Bolt is to the Olympics what The Voice‘s fifth season is to reality singing competitions: Fast, thrilling and seemingly invincible.

So it seemed most peculiar — and actually a little shocking — that the gold-medal-winning sprinter’s appearance on tonight’s Top 10 performance telecast turned out to be the most sluggish two hours the NBC ratings powerhouse has presented in recent memory.

Carson Daly tried to convince us that Harry Nilsson’s “Without You” isn’t a threadbare reality competition staple, but rather a song that James Wolpert was introducing to today’s youth. Christina Aguilera dodged and weaved like a champion boxer — trying to avoid getting caught giving the tart criticisms that were percolating at the tip of her tongue. And I kinda, sorta found myself wishing Christina Milian might stage a sit-in in the Sprint Skybox, just to add a little excitement to the proceedings.

OK, OK, I didn’t mean that last part. We’ve all heard enough “What’s up, Carson?”s to last us a lifetime. So let me jump to letter grades for tonight’s performances:

Austin Jenckes (Team Blake): Outfield’s “Your Love” — Grade: C- | Sorry, big fella, but if I hadn’t taken notes during the show, my memories of this performance would be limited to: A. Your interview clip about driving a forklift when you first moved to Nashville. B. A painful series of glory notes toward the end. C. The sense that Blake, realizing he’s unlikely to have three of the final eight acts, saddled you with a super-generic song about cheating on one’s girlfriend, then pretended it would give you the ability to shock voters and “make it your own.” Spoiler alert: Neither one of those things happened.

Jacquie Lee (Team Xtina): Zedd featuring Foxes’ “Clarity” — Grade: B- | I understood Christina wanting to show a softer side of Jackie, but why rip her out of the retro-soul/rock wheelhouse where she’s made her mark in the last three weeks? There are plenty of ditties, after all, that aren’t stripped-down versions of generic dance-pop hits! Jacquie herself looked — and definitely sounded — tentative for the opening half of the performance, never quite latching onto the pitch. Things improved once she slid off the piano and caught the groove of the chorus — the little upward lift into falsetto territory on “lo-ove!” was a nice touch — but for the first time since her Battle Round vs. Kaley Cuoco’s sister, Jacquie wound up looking vulnerable. (And alas, I mean vulnerable from a competitive standpoint, not in the emotional way Xtina was hoping.)

Will Champlin (Team Adam): John Newman’s “Love Me Again” — Grade: B | Will’s vocal one of the night’s most accurate, and his journey from sitting at the piano to standing behind the piano to rocking out at center stage went much more smoothly than it did during his Top 20 take on “Secrets.” Still, there are still moments where Will’s face and body language are very “4:58pm in Corporateville” — as if he’s already visualizing his commute home and what he might order for dinner. Or maybe, faced with a middling track like “Love Me Again,” Will was merely brainstorming better song choices for Top 8 week?

Caroline Pennell (Team Cee Lo): Peter, Paul & Mary’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane” — Grade: B+ | Cee Lo, whose feedback usually amounts to the sound the adults make on The Peanuts, rolled up his zippery leather sleeves and criticized his own artist (a Voice first?) for not opening up enough and allowing the band to overpower her tonight. Normally, I’d applaud that brand of unbiased honesty — except for the fact that dude’s complaint seemed totally unfounded. Sure, “Leaving on a Jet Plane” all but has an “I’m From the ’60s!” tattoo on its hindquarters, but Caroline delivered it with a wistfulness and clarity that overcame the clunky rainbows-and-butterflies animation on the screens behind her. Yes, the kid needs to use her Google Maps app and get off the corner of Pixie Dust Lane and Earnest Avenue next week — click here for some possible song sugestions — but she should (and most likely will) sail through to the Top 8 anyhow.

Cole Vosbury (Team Blake): Mr. Big’s “To Be With You” — Grade: B- | Was it just me, or did the sound mix on Cole’s performance border on disgraceful? Granted, Bearded McSexypants made the peculiar choice to let a coven of backround singers sing the melody on the chorus — making for some awkward pauses from the man at center stage — but then again, watching Cole fiddle with his earpiece mid-song made me wonder if technical difficulties were in play. In spite of those stumbles, though, the grit and maturity in Cole’s tone made it work better than it should’ve, and better than Blake’s “so acoustic!” feedback indicated.

Tessanne Chin (Team Adam): Gladys Knight & the Pips’ “If I Were Your Woman” — Grade: B- | All in favor of a “Free Tessanne!” movement that allows her to switch to Team Xtina or Team Blake (or heck, even Team Crazy Choreography), raise your hand. Because based on Adam’s fusty old song choice — and his instructions to “start at zero, end at crazy” — I’m convinced he has no idea what to do with this powerhouse vocalist who desperately needs to forge her own musical identity, rather than bulldozing her way through her future Vegas lounge show. That maybe sounds harsher than I meant it. Tessanne hit most of her notes, even if her “If I Were Your Woman” lacked subtlety and freshness, but there’s also a sense that her potential is going untapped. And time, alas, is running short.

Ray Boudreaux (Team Blake): Ray Lamontagne’s “You Are the Best Thing” — Grade: C+ | Much like off-brand peanut butter, I suppose there was nothing especially wrong with Ray’s tuneful but listless “You Are the Best Thing.” Well, except for the lack of creativity and surprise. And the overarching sense of detachment. And the blanket of ennui that envelops me and threatens to send me into night-night times just for daring to think deeply about something so sleepy.

James Wolpert (Team Adam): Harry Nilsson/Badfinger’s “Without You” — Grade: B+ | The whole art-deco vibe of the set and James’ mic-stand/cane, lapel-poppy combo added an aura of coolness to his performance without threatening to overpower it. (Take notes, Cee Lo!) And while Xtina was right that his pitch “didn’t always line up” — bless her approval-craving heart for working so hard to not get labeled as “the bitchy one” this season — James’ ability to infuse the oft-heard ballad with a modern-rock sensibility was pretty nifty. Yeah, his vocal ambitions sometimes exceed his abilities by 10-15%, but at least the dude is pushing himself and performing every number like it could be his last, no?

Kat Robichaud (Team Cee Lo): Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” — Grade: B C+ | I was so bummed by Kat’s Bottom 3 showing after last week’s electrifying “Sail” — and so bewildered by the Paso Doble Dance Troupe that backed her — that I’ve got to cop to having initially given her a higher grade than she deserved. On second listen, it became abundantly evident that Kat was struggling mightily with the lower portions of La Benatar’s range-y pop hit, and still wobbled like a balloon full Jell-o when she transitioned to her belt-y comfort zone. So while I’d still be more intrigued to hear Kat than Austin or Ray next week, I can’t pretend she significantly outperformed them tonight, either.

Matthew Schuler (Team Xtina): Labrinth featuring Emeli Sande’s “Beneath Your Beautiful” — Grade: A- | Matthew began his performance this week tentatively, almost inaudibly, and while perhaps the arrangement was a bit lower than it should’ve been, there was also a tenderness and vulnerability in that cragginess that fit the lyrics rather perfectly. By the time the kid unleashed his full voice to convey the romantic sweep of yet another Emeli Sande number — what’s Idol and The Voice’s obsession with this chica? — I was sold. Now let’s see if he can create the same magic in the first or second performance slot next week, shall we?

Should go home: Austin, Ray
Will go home: Austin, Kat

And with that, let me turn things over to you. What did you think of Top 10 performance night? Who were your faves? Who surprised you? Who will and should be at risk? Take our poll below, then expand on your thoughts in the comments!

I can’t with Team Blake this season. Last night was as if the same guy sang 3 times. Austin and Ray need to go now, I know the public loooves Blake but it’s starting to be ridiculous to keep this guys there.

I’m so on board with Free Tessanne, girl needs to go to Team Xtina. Adam is sabotaging her even if this was the first performance in the live shows she had that was almost good (no surprise there, anyone remember Katrina Parker? No? Thank Adam for that, he kick the girl to the corner to make room for Tony Luccan’t. He does not know what to do with a girl with a soulful voice).

Wow. Last night, I thought it was just me. But now I read all these comments and realize that I am not alone. I just didn’t like the performances at ALL. Cheesy backgrounds and accompaniments, pitch problems from virtually ALL the singers, poor song choices, meaningless comments from the judges. This was more like an episode of X-Factor, instead of the excellence we have come to expect from The Voice. What’s going on here???

There’s something about this show that troubles me. It seems no matter how often they perform, we never get to know the performer. They give us a series of songs but we never get to know the singer, I could not have a connecting conversation about any of the contestants except Jacquie Lee is the youngest (as if Caroline Pennell is filling out her Medicare enrollment form). Tessane sang with Jimmy Cliff. Uh. Basically that’s all it has been reduced to: tag lines. Somehow American Idol has figured out a way to get us to know and connect with its contestants in a deep, profound seasonal relationship. I watch The Voice but I don’t care about the voices.

“There’s something about this show that troubles me. It seems no matter how often they perform, we never get to know the performer. They give us a series of songs but we never get to know the singer, I could not have a connecting conversation about any of the contestants except Jacquie Lee is the youngest (as if Caroline Pennell is filling out her Medicare enrollment form). ”
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And this is something to be thankful for this season IMO. It’s not supposed to be voting for your best bestie or the sob story or the so on and so forth. In the real world you don’t get introduced to musicians by hours of back story first. This isn’t The View.

I didn’t like Cole, because the backup singers overpowered him, but I do like the song which is probably why he is where he is on iTunes. It comes down to song choice. Michelle Chantel did Clarity way better than Jacque. The song that I found boring: When I Was Your Woman, and I love Tessanne.

I just rewatched Jacquie’s performance, and while she definitely seemed uneasy with it all, it did not sound nearly as bad as many of you are claiming. It wasn’t her strongest performance, but she still sounded lovely.

Come on. It wasn’t THAT much of a disaster and more so what about all the other weeks and since when has been being a cute girl ever been some automatic save on these shows (looking at contestants overall over all seasons on these shows, if anything, I’d say it sends them home a round or two earlier than they might have otherwise)? You must be thinking cute guy.

Jacquie was pretty much horrible. Just go back and listen to Michelle Chamuel from last season doing the same song and you can see the difference. Michelle nailed it and Jacquie totally floundered. It’s a song that leaves you exposed and she was all over the map. I also listened to a sample of her itunes studio version and I still didn’t like it. This is a girl with a lot of hype and some talent but I don’t think she’s quite ready yet. She needs some more voice training.

Re Jacquie. Seems to me it is a coach’s job to help the individual WIN (like Blake does). . .not choose songs that make the singer uncomfortable or expose weaknesses (like Christina did to Jacquie). Christina should have known after the first few run-throughs that Clarity was not the song for Jacquie. I’m starting to wonder if the fix is in???!!!

For once I have to agree with Michael. This show was B-O-R-I-N-G. By far, the worst of the season. And it wasn’t because anyone sang poorly, they just chose sleepy, snoozy songs. The only interesting performance was Tessanne’s. Her vocal wasn’t perfect, but she took on the most difficult song of the night and wrestled it to the mat. Even more encouraging was seeing her styled–and yes, it does matter–younger and more current. The sleek hair style and short skirt were a vast improvement over her matronly dowager looks the past few weeks.
Nobody sucked, so it’s hard to predict who might be going home, but I think Kat and Ray shouldn’t make any plans for after the show. They just seem to have the weakest fan bases of the remaining contestants.

Maybe Christina’s team didn’t do as well as they did in past weeks because she spent more time doing yoga with them instead of doing some vocal coaching. Luckily for Jacquie and Matthew e others teams weren’t outstanding either.

I have no problem with Christina introducing her students to yoga. When I was in school it was Alexander technique. Both help a singer with their breathing and relaxation. What I did have a problem with was Christina giving a 16 year-old singer a song that sits right in her “break” and then essentially telling her to figure it out on national TV. I mean really! It takes some singers YEARS to figure out how to negotiate their passagio or break and she’s telling this young, albeit talented, high schooler to experiment in front of millions. Poor form, Christina!

This is why risk-taking (that everybody seems to love so much) is very overrated on shows like this. You’re usually setting yourself up for failure by going outside your comfort zone, or taking a “risk.”

Jacque has been overrated for a while now. I’m not really a fan of hers. The performances that some fans have said were “Amazing/Perfect/etc.” have been solid, but a tad on the screechy side. James was just hard to listen to at times. The high notes were off. I think Matthew, Ray, and Tessane were probably the best tonight. Overall, it just wasn’t a good night. Hopefully next week will be much better.

How weak were last night’s performances? This morning, Matthew’s version of Hallelujah from LAST WEEK is ranking higher than any of the songs from last night on iTunes. And his song from last night is right now the highest ranked, just over Cole.

Im so disappointed with Cee Lo’s choice of song and choreography for Kat. She should never have any choreography, she feels the emotion when she sings and just does what is natural to her. I will be upset if she goes home. Let her pick her songs if she stays, and watch her make everyone else look like fools.

As usual – this is about the time that I check out of the Voice. These people sing the most boring songs I’ve heard on reality TV. They sing songs that I don’t know, and they don’t make me want to know them. This show is BORING with all capitals…

At least on other singing competitions I watch (AI mostly) the contestants make me like the songs they sing that I don’t know, NOT SO MUCH on this show.

I feel like Ray won the night! Most of the front runners got mis-led by this start soft end big bad advice that failed everytime and made them sound like common kareoke singers for the first half. Ray was the only one of the night that sounded like a star from start to finish. I agree he needs his big power performance. But all competition long I have been asking myself, why he is still in, but last night he converted me. Ray has the chops!

Tessanne was doomed the moment she picked Adam. He’s riding her right out of the competition the same way he did Judith Hill, Sasha Allen and Amanda Brown. He just doesn’t have a way with powerhouse female vocalists…and I don’t understand why they keep choosing him. This is Judith Hill 2.0.

I agree. Adam gives very bad advice to his powerhouse singers. He tells them dumb things like oh that wasn’t hard enough so you should go to a higher key. Just because you can do something and hit all the high notes doesn’t mean you need to do it in every song. That gets boring fast. Plus she needs to sing more modern songs. No one wants to buy the dinosaurs she’s putting out. People want to see the type of songs she’d put out to get an idea of what she’s about.

It’s a shame but Adam seems to get the best singers and he just coaches them to failure every time.

I agree that Adam can do better with Tessanne. But you shouldn’t only single him out. I don’t think the other judges are doing that much better either. Xtina has a powerhouse vocalist, Matthew, and she’s doing the same thing to him as Adam is doing to Tessanne–giving him boring songs. Since the live rounds, Xtina has saddled Matthew with Wrecking Ball, Hallelujah and Beneath Your Beautiful. How are those song choices any better than what Adam gives Tessanne?

Well Wrecking Ball and Beneath Your Beautiful are both current and are very popular songs for covers. Hallelujah is overplayed but brings in the votes. It’s obviously working because Matt was number 1 on itunes for several days with the Hallelujah songs so Christina is more attuned to what the public will pay for. I’d love to see Matt do some more indie songs though, like he did earlier in the contest.

Wrecking Ball did rather well, and Hallelujah was #1 on itunes. I think she’s handling Matthew a LOT better than Adam is handling Tessanne. At least it feels like he’s trying to be current. Tessanne just feels like another powerhouse from AI

But for every Hallelujah Xtina has chosen (which I think she got lucky with because it could’ve been an overplayed disaster), she has picked a lot of lemons like Wrecking Ball, Crazy, Man in the Mirror, Clarity, Beneath Your Beautiful (which incidentally is also sung by the same person who sang Next To Me and My Kind Of Love by Tessanne).

You’re absolutely right. To me, the best example of this is when he told that Gothy chick to sound much “angrier” when she performed that Gotye song. “This is an angry song, he’s angry about a break up… you have to really sound angry or else people might not get the point!” or some crap. She employed his advice and just turned the song into some ridiculous Evanescence-type version.

I look forward every week to your comments,Michael. And wit that said more&more I feel like we are really drifting apart in terms of what we are hearing. I thought Jaquie held her own in her song& thought Matthew was awful for most of his and Will just wobbled all over the place. Kat? How can she possibly top what she did last week? I don’t think I will ever forget it.So memorable was it. I love James and I say let him pick his own songs.THAT’S how astute he is. I’m barely botherin w/Austin and Cole. Ray has a good rich voice so I gave him.a vote.Matthew? He’s awight. Kind ofin a neo-Seal kind of way. And as good as Tess is ,James,Kat&Jaquie are who I look forward to every week. And in terms of it being sleepy last nighy,I was just in a melancholy mood all day yesterday and my usual eagerness for the shoe wasn’t there.Life is tough these days boyh personally&globally.Tougher than usual.After yhe Phillipines,tornadoes rip through Illinois.On top of yhat all the daily political &economic strife just gets to ya.You know?

Awww, I thought y’all had come around on Kat, but apparently last week was a fluke! I get where Cee Lo was going with this, bought it, loved it, and her itunes version is even better than the performance. The other two I really loved this week were Caroline and Ray.

Anyway, prepared to bid adieu to Kat tonight, but seriously with her gone, I don’t know if there’s anyone left on the show who could add a little spice to the proceedings.

Why the hell are we claiming that Michelle Chamuel was awesome on “Clarity” last season? I’m a die hard fan who just finished buying her single that dropped today and evil I regard that entire semi-finals week as one to never be talked about. She was fine, but heavens no it wasn’t up to par with majority of what she’d generally done.

Really? I knew she wanted to veer clear of the labels, but she needs to hire somebody, because that false controversy is so last year. Michelle is good and the best vocalist to come out of the Voice, so this buzz campaign is not only weak, but unnecessary. Hit it head on. She is that good.

Memo to Carson Daly: I swear to god if you say that jacquie is the youngest contestant one more time, I will not watch another episode of the voice ever! Do you hear me?!?! Not one more time, man, I mean it, enough already, we know, we know, we know!!!

Boring, over-processed crap last night. Getting tired of these show’s cookie cutter singers and songs. Let’s hear singers delivering ORIGINAL material…let’s see some personality, not the same thing over, and over, and over, and… There are a couple in this competition who can sing AND write. Wow, multi-dimensional… imagine that?!

I think they are too afraid, if the risk to be more interesting doesn’t work and with all those saying you need to vote 100% week to week…. not saying I agree with that, but that is the nature of this false reality.

Wow, your reviews encapsulate nearly every thought that occurs to me when watching The Voice. And one of the most recurring ones is this: Adam is a hack. I haven’t been moved by a single one of Tessanne’s performances even though it’s clear that she has a lot of vocal ability and just a plain old good voice. If Adam’s pedestrian tastes and hatred of subtlety isn’t to blame for that, what is?

My top three were Will, Caroline and Ray, and I’m as surprised by that as anyone. I would give each of them a middle B, with Tessanne behind at a B-, and nobody else above a D. Seriously, Jacquie and Matthew were AWFUL when they began their songs, Kat and James were screechy and uneven (and so off when it came to the melody of the actual song), Cole mumbled and rambled and let the backup singers take most of the song, and I have no memory of Austin whatsoever because he was bland and soporific. If Will, Caroline, Tessanne or Ray goes home on a night when everybody else was under water, it will be because fans already know who they like and they vote for them no matter how they perform. Jacquie, Kat and Austin were the worst of the worst and I would make them the bottom three. But I wouldn’t complain if Cole, Matthew or James got a trip to the bottom group just to wake them up and make them perform better next time. That was painful.

I agree with many of the comments about Jacquie not performing well last night, but she will be in the top eight after Tuesday’s show. Austin and Cole have the beards + Blake Team factor (not the VOICE) in their favor, so they will be in the top 8. Kat did not have the worst performance last night, but many viewers believe that CeeLo should have selected Tamara as one of his final 3, so Kat will be leaving the show on Tuesday. That only leaves Team CeeLo with one performer-Caroline- and she will be departing very soon if she gives us another BORING performance.

I have to agree that the Voice was a total bore fest last night. Not one performance excited me and all song choices were boooooooooring. The first episode in all the seasons of the voice that i actually put the sound on mute and now I don’t have any preference for who goes or stays. Very disappointing episode.

The show would be a lot better if they would stop looking for the next Danielle Bradbery … stop kicking people off the show because of occasional pitch issues, or because they can’t seem to master every type of song and deliver it flawlessly.